Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[atrus]

Finally caught up after becoming a little jaded on Monday with Brax being back - and Roo, Matt and Maddy was probably the only storyline that was really working for me this week, bringing some much needed humour to an otherwise by-the-book helping of repetitive angst and bed-hopping.

Everyone seemed to be criticising Smarmy Detective's approach to the investigation and he may not have done it by the book, but it was Kat who was being biased towards her friends and advocating that they shouldn't even bother interviewing Ash simply because she knows he wouldn't kill anyone. Hello - he lied about his alibi in a murder investigation, and then refused to come to the station - what did he expect? A regular character get-out-of-jail-free card? And then we had Phoebe et al intervening on Ash's behalf and trying to persuade Kat to let him go, just because. It's very difficult when Kat is the one the writers want us to be rooting for - and to be clear, I want to be rooting for her too, rather than this smug bloke who used to beat her up - to take her seriously on this investigation. Everything about her involvement just screams conflict of interest. This is about the time where it would be sensible for Smarmy to declare her Off The Case, so that she could sneak around in secret carrying out an unofficial investigation.

Meanwhile, the love carousel spins apace, with Ash and Phoebe picking up where they left off again, and Hannah leaping into bed with Andy only to discover that, hey, that's not what she wanted after all. Guess she'll be hotfooting it back to Chris now, then? Or perhaps she could do us all a favour and go and find a nice bloke in the City to mess around, where we don't have to be witness to it. And after what I felt was a considerable effort by the writers to develop a sweet relationship between Skye and Jett, I was really disappointed that Jett chose to break up with her off-screen because of the 'long distance thing', especially so quickly after what she's been through recently. I suppose that's evidence that Jett's reappearance recently was a flash in the pan, and that Skye is being freed up to get with Oscar. Well at least that's a new relationship that I can get on board with. And at least it looks like Brax is off again, so we won't be subjected to any more love triangle drama there. Until next week, when Ricky will probably leap into bed with Kyle.

And another teen cancer story. My instincts are telling my Evie's lump will prove benign, just because they've done this story not all that long ago with Maddy. As such it just felt like another excuse for everyone to get upset for a few days, and for Josh to start feeling guilty about what a tool he's been. Yawn.

[H&Alover]

Phew, so glad it wasn't just me who had problems posting!

Whichever way it turns out for Evie you can bet on one thing she'll be making a vow to change things, i.e. be a better person, do something worthwhile with her life etc. Hannah shouldn't have been so closely involved with Evie at the hospital but hey it happens all the time at Northern Districts, how many times has Nate treated people he knows, is involved with?  And he hasn't been the only medic to do it. Though thinking about it it is inevitable any doctor, assuming there are others, would tend up treating people they know, it's only a small town.Something about the way Oscar was moping along must have made Hannah come out with that well known soap phrase  'I thought you knew'. Evie really should have given Oscar a lot more credit for  being able to cope with bad news.

So Olivia is getting all territorial over Hunter because Skye is moving in and shock horror is going to have to share a room with her!  Seeing as Irene introduced them it appears they hadn't met/run into each other before. We have Chris and Hunter sharing a room, now Skye and Olivia, so going by the premise Irene has her own room where does Nate sleep?

I didn't believe the revived bouncy Chris either, far too forced and was it just me or did Destiny (really?) look  very much like Hannah.  Started off well but then he broke the cardinal rule of first dates by banging on about his ex and not in a good way.

You know not even a lock needed on the inside of the bathroom door, just a hook or  a small bolt to secure it, wonder how Matt would have felt if it had been Roo bursting in on him?  Made my mind boggle too, $10 for a loaf of bread, especially if Roo is the only one eating it, why should Matt or Maddy cough up any money for that.  I don't think Marilyn made the others pay for her veggie food and herbal teas. Fair enough make a contribution for shall we say more 'ordinary' food and yes a rota of jobs to do around the house (and that doesn't mean just Matt taking the bins out) they all pitch in. They all obviously look after their own rooms but communal space means just that.  I liked Matt's gripe about the cushions, what it is about folk who clutter up a sofa/chairs with extra cushions (apologies to anyone on here if they do it).

[Little bean]

1 hour ago, H&Alover said:

 I liked Matt's gripe about the cushions, what it is about folk who clutter up a sofa/chairs with extra cushions (apologies to anyone on here if they do it).

Haa. I'm sooooo with you and Matt on that one!

[CaptainHulk]

3 hours ago, H&Alover said:

So Olivia is getting all territorial over Hunter because Skye is moving in and shock horror is going to have to share a room with her!  Seeing as Irene introduced them it appears they hadn't met/run into each other before. We have Chris and Hunter sharing a room, now Skye and Olivia, so going by the premise Irene has her own room where does Nate sleep?

 

Beach House has since been established as a 4-bed. 

Irene in hers

The girls sharing

The Boys shairng

Nate in his

[Pierced Musie]

Heh, only just noticed that the room by the bottom on the stairs at Irene's is no more. Or was I imagining that there used to be a bedroom situated there?

Only other thought on this weeks episodes is that they sacrificed Andy/Evie for that last fumble in the sheets between Hannah & Andy? Bullcrap . I would much prefer them to keep pushing the Andy/Evie angle... even if it was just friendship.

[H&Alover]

20 hours ago, Pierced Musie said:

Heh, only just noticed that the room by the bottom on the stairs at Irene's is no more. Or was I imagining that there used to be a bedroom situated there?

Only other thought on this weeks episodes is that they sacrificed Andy/Evie for that last fumble in the sheets between Hannah & Andy? Bullcrap . I would much prefer them to keep pushing the Andy/Evie angle... even if it was just friendship.

No, first there wasn't, then there was now it's gone again, vanished a while ago.

[atrus]

Another so-so episode, as Evie's navel-gazing takes a surprise turn just when I thought it was over, and becomes an entire family's navel-gazing. I'm with Initial Oscar on this one - I'm not sure I'd particularly want to know if I had the Gene of Death. Hannah pulling pensive faces throughout suggests to me that she's the one whose result is going to come back iffy. Or did the results already come back? I'd tuned out by 75% of the way through, in honesty.

Matt's getting on my nerves now, which is rare. I'm also a consummate slob, but when you're living with other people you have to show a bit of consideration. I do agree with him on the "why buy clothes you'd need to handwash?" thing - because really, why? But again - that doesn't mean you can just treat everyone else's stuff with the same disregard.

Ricky and Nate: either get married or don't get married, but for heaven's sake stop talking about it. It's enough to drive one to make like Charlotte and take a long walk off a short pier.

Good to see Constable Terri Garner again.

Promo seems to have Hannah trying to woo Chris again, which should be a treat.

[Red Ranger 1]

Rant alert: Maddy and Matt's relationship has gone the way I suspected, with Maddy going from a grown-up relationship to playing babysitter to an overgrown child, who makes sleazy remarks about "bedroom and beach".And to be honest, this storyline isn't doing Matt any favours either.He's always tended to be an immature jerk and he's never been an intellectual, but he's previously been mostly portrayed as Book Dumb.Here he comes across as an inept lazy teenager who's incapable of surviving without mum to look after him, which given that he and his sister were left to fend for themselves and it's hard to imagine Leah letting him get away with this seems rather unlikely.Aside from the cliché of putting an empty bottle back in the fridge instead of replacing it, he seems to think that putting clothes in a linen basket means they get washed by themselves and that the bins get emptied by fairies if you stuff enough gunk in them.I'm with him on the handwash items though, I'd have just stuck them in the washing machine too.

I actually rather liked Evelyn's storyline and was disappointed that it got wrapped up so perfunctorily, but then it got used as the launchpad for what seems to be the next stage.I think it was a smart move to give the counter-argument to Oscar because it seemed more reasonable from him than Evelyn or Hannah even if he did end up changing his mind: Is it better to prepare yourself or to live in ignorance, especially when the test gives no firm answer either way? And who is it he talks to about it? I'm not going to make a soul mate comment, that's not how it was portrayed and I get that Maddy was used because she's had recent experience of cancer, but I will say that that was the only scene in the episode where Maddy seemed like the more mature character from last year, and that given that she always went to him when she had a problem it's nice to see it reciprocated.

Ricky hiding the toy car started off as her not wanting Nate to know Brax was there, but went on a bit too long.I'm glad it wasn't a big drama, even if Nate was a bit passive aggressive. Alf and Leah were at a disadvantage with their advice: They think there's no chance of Brax turning up again but Nate and Ricky know otherwise.Still, I liked that scene with Alf: There's been a fair bit of criticism that his first marriage gets airbrushed out of his history, even though that's Roo's mother, so it was nice to see them given equal weight here.(Not sure we saw any sign of Ailsa thinking she couldn't measure up but maybe that's from before we met them.)

[Slade]

I guess every day is a school day.  Never occurred to me that men get breast cancer.  The only thing I liked about Hannah being in that episode was the consistency with the storyline unlike when the stuff with Tank was going on.

Quite liked the chat with Maddy and Oscar and the waiting to be run over by a bus analogy.  She probably should have been involved more in the Evelyn storyline as well.

Matt is seriously starting to get on my nerves again.  He's gone right back to being immature and his attitude stinks.  We'll see how long Roo is prepared to put up with him for.

[H&Alover]

It was original that tptb  are exploring the fact  that families can inherit a bad gene.  Men can indeed get breast cancer, it's just that it's normally thought of a 'woman's' thing.  The prostate cancer is a long way off for Oscar and is not always picked up soon enough.  This way at least, now he has agreed to be screened he will be more aware of the early symptoms.  Thankfully Evie was clear, but it doesn't automatically exclude her from any possible future risk.  I'm not really sure what I would do if I had to make the choice, maybe if I had a family of my own and wanted to be there for them as long as possible then I may and of course there would be their children to think of.  The discovery of a bad cancer gene is a new thing, before that no-one had joined the dots when a lot of family members died of cancer, but if lives can be saved it can only be a good thing.  Going off piste a bit the same can be done for other diseases, it is up to the individual to take or not take the test. I'm glad Oscar talked to Maddy about it, she had no family history (as far as we know) and her advice was sound. It'd be nice now to see a scene or scenes with her and Evie.  I guess getting the all clear can be just as traumatic as getting bad news, your imagination goes into overdrive expecting bad news. I suppose there would have been the 'if you have been affected by the storyline ring these numbers' at the end.

I didn't find Maddy that annoying over the cleaning up the flat, though she did have to bribe Matt with beers, if that worked  better than nagging so be it.  I couldn't see Leah putting up with him leaving a mess around the house either, she wouldn't have let VJ get away with it. Once he was on his own in the van, he was the only one that had to put up with it.  If he ran out of milk, he had his coffee/tea without or he went and bought some (or cadged some from the house). It wasn't Matt's fault he machine washed Maddy's clothes (note he washed them) and what is wrong with having hand wash only items, I do!  When Maddy was living at SBH she probably did them herself or Roo knew about them as she had some herself. The putting back the empty milk bottle was a male/teenage cliché but happens.  Why was it down to Matt to empty the bin Maddy and Roo must have seen it was full, it's not exclusively a 'man's' job!

Obviously Casey is a little young for the toy car so Ricky would put it away somewhere safe, like a drawer, so nothing really sinister about it, it was Casey's after all.  Not sure about the rush marriage plans though, I would say from Nate's point of view it's as if Ricky is trying to prove to him and herself she really is over Brax. Nice to get a mention of Alf's first wife (Martha) and how the love he felt for Ailsa was different, not more or less, just different.  John would probably say the same about Gina and Marilyn. But of course neither he or Leah know Brax is alive, it raises the question is it harder if the partner/wife/husband is alive or dead.  If they are dead (and you didn't know them) there is such a lot to live up to because you only tend to hear the good things about them.  In Nate's case of course he knows/knew Brax and not the myth, so knew he was flawed. I think Ailsa's main problem about thinking she couldn't measure up was mainly down to Roo who made her feelings very clear about how she felt about her.